Remember Izzy?
The amorphous, animated, ring-wearing creature with lightning flashes for eyebrows drew a lot of criticism when it was first introduced. Izzy was called everything from "road kill" to "a bad marriage of the Pillsbury Doughboy and the ugliest California Raisin" to "a genetic experiment gone horribly, ghastly wrong."But Izzy became wildly popular with kids and made converts right and left. By the time it was all over, Izzy-related sales totaled more than $250 million, knocking Cobi, the mascot dog of the 1992 Barcelona Games, out of the top spot.
Nagano's Snowlets
That, of course, was before the Snowlets took the world by storm at the Nagano Olympics.
In Japan, 500,000 stuffed versions of the four baby owls -- Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki -- sold out almost immediately and created a shopping frenzy among souvenir hunters. "We never expected the demand to be this high," organizers told the Associated Press. "Until the Games actually got started, there didn't seem to be much interest."
The owls were designed to symbolize "peace, harmony with nature and good will toward men," and the Snowlets name came from a combination of the white stuff and let's, "which calls on everyone to join in the fun."
Sydney's trio
The Sydney Games will have three mascots: Syd, a platypus named for Sydney; Millie, an echidna named for the new millennium; and Olly, a kookaburra named for the Olympics. The mascots are said to represent earth, air and water. But even they have received criticism from environmentalists. On an Australian Web site, Wilderness Society campaign director called the mascots "sophisticated greenwashing. It is breathtakingly hypocritical of Australia to portray itself to the rest of the world as environmentally sensitive when our environment is under a greater threat than ever."
Which just goes to show how difficult it can be to please everyone. But controversies aside, mascots have become lucrative marketing tools, decorating pins and paraphernalia of all kinds.
A dachshund, bear, eagle. . .
Other popular figures from the past include: Waldi, a dachshund from the 1972 Munich Games; Micha, a bear from the 1980 Moscow Games; Sam the eagle, which presided at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles; Hodori, a tiger at the Seoul Games in 1988; Hidy and Howdy, polar bears at the Calgary Games in 1988; and Haakon and Kristin, Norwegians from the Lillihammer Games of 1994. -- Carma Wadley